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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29745861">Lem'nLime</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmyViolet/pseuds/AmyViolet'>AmyViolet</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Glee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Concerts, First Meetings, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:55:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,952</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29745861</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmyViolet/pseuds/AmyViolet</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam Evans is the last-minute replacement for boy band Lem'nLime's opening act. Blaine is in the audience with his tween daughter.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Blaine Anderson/Sam Evans</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Lem'nLime</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s very last minute. Some band called Lemonade is in town, and their opening act got food poisoning or…Sam’s not even sure, but they can’t go on. Sam gets the call offering him the gig from his ex-roommate Puck, who’s a lighting guy at the theater, and if they’re down to asking the lighting guys for recommendations, they’re clearly pretty desperate.</p><p>He’s glad to get it. Yeah, it would be nice to have more than like an hour’s warning, but it actually pays, unlike most of his performances. And Puck says the theater is sold out, so that’ll be good for getting more of an audience for his music. He looks in his closet for a change of clothes and decides the jeans and black t-shirt he’s wearing are as good as anything else he has. He grabs his guitar and heads downtown.</p><p>*</p><p>“Dad, I’m so excited, aren’t you so excited you could just scream!” Forget, like, <i>hello</i>, this is how Indigo greets Blaine when he arrives to pick her up from Kurt’s.</p><p>“I’m pretty excited,” he lies. Actually it’s not a lie, not really. He loves spending time with his daughter. He likes to see her so happy. It’s just that he is not quite the fan of the boy-band stylings of Lem’nLime that Indigo is. It’s bad enough that she plays their single “I Wish I Was Your Teddybear” on repeat almost constantly; even worse is that when she actually plays any of their other songs, they all sound virtually indistinguishable from “I Wish I Was Your Teddybear.”</p><p>Kurt appears behind Indigo at the door. “Thanks for doing this, Blaine. I know it’s not your week…”</p><p>“Sure, I’m happy to.”</p><p>“Does my makeup look okay, Dad?”</p><p>It’s too much, in Blaine’s opinion, but he wants her to be able to develop her own style. “You look lovely. Go get your jacket and we’ll go.”</p><p>“No, it’s not that cold,” Indigo tries to convince him. But she’s wearing a sleeveless top, and it’s going to dip down into the forties later, and Blaine insists. She argues until Blaine points out that the longer she argues, the more chance there is that they’ll be late for the concert. </p><p>While she’s going to her room, Kurt’s boyfriend Prentiss walks up. “Hey, Blaine. Thanks for doing this.”</p><p>“Any time.” Does it rankle a little, Blaine’s suspicion that the main reason Kurt asked him to take Indigo to this thing is so he and Prentiss could have the house to themselves for a while? Maybe. But it’s not Kurt’s fault that he’s found someone new and Blaine hasn’t.</p><p>Prentiss stands behind Kurt and puts his arms around his waist. “I don’t know how many more times I can stand hearing ‘I Wish I Were Your Teddybear.’”</p><p>“I think it’s ’I Wish I <i>Was</i> Your Teddybear,’” Blaine says.</p><p>“No, I know that’s how they sing it, but it bugs me. It’s grammatically incorrect.”</p><p>“Mmm.” Blaine refrains from rolling his eyes or even pointing out that grammatical correctness is hardly the main point of pop music. He reminds himself that Prentiss is fine, actually…and if he’s not, it’s Kurt’s problem, not his. </p><p>Indigo returns with a hoodie that she hands to Blaine to carry for her. They say their good-byes to Kurt and Prentiss, and as they’re walking to the car Indigo begins the very important discussion: “Okay, which of the guys do you think is the cutest? Because I used to think it was Logan, but then Corey got that new haircut…”</p><p>*</p><p>Sam tunes up his guitar backstage and tries to write up a set list on a scrap of paper he found in the dressing room. He has to go on in less than fifteen minutes, which would be nerve-wracking enough even if literally everyone backstage weren’t going completely nuts. </p><p>Okay, they told him to play for about twenty minutes, so that’s like five songs. No problem. He’ll start with “Dreams.” He’s not actually sure what style of music the act he’s replacing plays, but who doesn’t love a Fleetwood Mac cover? Then that Candy song he likes—it’s a cover too, but no one really knows it, and even if they did, his version sounds pretty different than the original since he arranged it for acoustic guitar. Then three of his own songs. Or, if “Dreams” is a bigger crowd pleaser than his original music (and Sam is pretty confident about his own music, but he knows he’s no Stevie Nicks), maybe two of his own songs and “Free Fallin’.” Because Tom Petty is right up there with Fleetwood Mac.</p><p>Some guy pops his head into the dressing room. “You’re the warm-up act?”</p><p>“Yep.”</p><p>“Just you, or do you have a band?”</p><p>“No, it’s just me.”</p><p>“All right, let’s go.” </p><p>The guy leads him to the stage, gestures at it, and tells him, “Break a leg.”</p><p>“Wait, don’t we need to do a sound check or something first?”</p><p>“It’s a little late for that. You can hear the crowd out there already, right?” Sam can hear them; they are very loud and would be impossible to not notice. “Don’t worry, man, we checked everything with the original opening band before they got sick.”</p><p>“But…” Sam can’t finish the thought; he’s being pretty much shoved out onstage. </p><p>The audience is even louder now. He knows everyone’s more excited for Lemonade than for him, but it still feels really cool—he’s never even played at a proper theater before. “Thank you!” he shouts into the microphone. “I’m Sam Evans. Lemonade will be out in just a few minutes. In the meantime…” Sam didn’t really prepare any banter and he’s too nervous to improvise, so he just launches into “Dreams.”</p><p>*</p><p>The guy onstage says “Lemonade will be out in just a few minutes,” and Indigo is incensed. “Did he just call Lem’nLime <i>Lemonade</i>!? Does he not even know who they are!?”</p><p>“I’m sure it was just a slip of the tongue,” Blaine assures her. She doesn’t look appeased, and he’s not sure if it’s because it’s just too big an outrage to forgive or because she didn’t even hear his comment.</p><p>Blaine focuses on Sam Evans. He’s good, or at least Blaine thinks so. There’s something a little wonky about the way he sounds, but it seems more like a sound equipment issue than anything else. Anyway he’s playing “Dreams,” which is a great song. Indigo, still miffed about the Lemonade slight, says, “Oh great, it’s that song that old people on TikTok love!” Blaine pats her shoulder but doesn’t reply, because he’s getting into the song. Old people on TikTok indeed! But maybe she’s sort of onto something because when the song ends, it’s met with applause from the kids that’s polite at best. The parents, though, seem to like it.</p><p>*</p><p>Okay, the first song didn’t go over quite as well as Sam hoped. The response wasn’t horrible or anything, just a little tepid. He feels like it would have sounded better if he’d been able to do a sound check, but, as that guy said, it’s too late for that now.</p><p>He probably should have said something to set the song up, though, and that’s something he can do something about; he has a decent line for the Candy song. “All right, how many of you remember your <i>first time</i>!?”</p><p>And there’s just…nothing from the audience. </p><p>Is the mic not working at all now? Sam looks around for a sound tech person who could possibly help.</p><p>Then he looks out at the audience.</p><p>Oh, crap! The theater is full of tweens and <i>pre-</i>tweens!</p><p>Why did no one tell him!?</p><p>But it’s okay, he can save this. “Really? No one remembers their first time…riding a bike?”</p><p>Still basically no reaction. </p><p>Sam frantically reviews the lyrics to “The First Time” in his head. There’s nothing actually explicit in them. He’s pretty sure there isn’t even anything specifically about sex. But now he has to make the song somehow about bicycles?</p><p>“This is a song by a band called Candy.” Kids like candy at least, right? But he still gets nothing from them and there's nothing else to do but launch into the song. </p><p>Where the song goes, “The first time we talked I felt like we could talk forever,” Sam sings, “The first time we biked I felt like we could bike forever.” And where it goes, “What if every time was like the first time,” he sings, “What if every ride was like the first ride.” And those substitutions work okay, at least as far as the meter goes. “Girl I’d never ride my bike without you” works less well in place of “Girl I’d never walk away from you.” But by then Sam knows he’s completely lost the audience anyway.</p><p>*</p><p>“This obviously isn’t a song about bikes, what is this guy doing?”</p><p>“He’s probably trying to clean it up,” Blaine says. “Poor guy.” He looks so flustered up there. Blaine would find it cute if he didn’t feel so bad for him.</p><p>*</p><p>Yeah, so “The First Time” didn’t go over any better than “Dreams” did. Much worse, in fact.</p><p>Even worse than that, Sam is realizing that his own songs—at least the ones he can play by himself with no other accompaniment—<i>are</i> about sex. </p><p>Also, his back-up cover song is probably not going to be a smash hit; he can’t imagine too many eleven-year-old girls are huge Tom Petty fans.</p><p>But what other songs does he know? These kids are too <i>old</i> for “Old MacDonald” or something like that.</p><p>Okay, well, he does have one idea. “Any Beliebers out there?” he asks hopefully. Apparently not, judging from the lack of response, but he plows ahead anyway with “Baby.”</p><p>*</p><p>“Oh my god, where did they even get this guy?”</p><p>“Be polite, Indigo.”</p><p>“What? It’s not like he can hear me.”</p><p>“Maybe not, but some people would rather hear this guy sing than hear you complain.” Some people like Blaine, for instance. Whatever was going on with the sound system has been fixed, and Sam Evans sounds really good now, despite being flustered. Blaine still feels bad for him, but he also admits to himself that he does also find it cute.</p><p>*</p><p>Sam only has to get through two more songs, that’s what he tells himself as he’s finishing up “Baby.” Luckily he knows some other Bieber songs too. Not that he’s under any illusions that the audience loved the first one he played, but he doesn’t have any better ideas.</p><p>He gets through them without really trying to talk to the audience or anything. It’s kind of all he can do to not speed up the songs’ tempo to get through them faster. He does cut one of the choruses from each, and who can blame him? Anyway the kids don’t seem to notice. </p><p>“Thank you!” he tells the crowd. “In just a moment, Lemonade!” And he gratefully leaves the stage.</p><p>*</p><p>“He said Lemonade again! But whatever, finally he’s done!”</p><p>“Hey, I liked him.”</p><p>Indigo rolls her eyes. “You would.”</p><p>*</p><p>“You have to go back out there,” some guy tells Sam as soon as he’s backstage. </p><p>“Trust me, this crowd does not want an encore of <i>me</i>. They just want Lemonade.”</p><p>“Lem’n<i>Lime</i>.”</p><p>“Oh great, I’ve been butchering their favorite band’s name this whole time?”</p><p>“I’m sure no one noticed. Just go out there and tell them the band is having some technical issues—”</p><p>“Oh no, do they have food poisoning too?” </p><p>“Just Danny.” At Sam’s blank look the guy adds, “The drummer. I’m sure he’ll be done puking soon.”</p><p>Some other guy helpfully adds, “Yeah, there can’t be that much left in his stomach <i>to</i> puke up at this point.”</p><p>“But don’t tell them he’s puking,” the first guy says. “Tell them Lem’nLime will be out really soon after they get a minor technical issue solved.”</p><p>*</p><p>Sam Evans walks back onstage, and the audience boos. He looks so panicked. Blaine wishes he could give the guy a hug or something. </p><p>He hears Indigo join in the booing and he turns and snaps at her: “Knock it off or we will leave right now.” She gives him a death glare before crossing her arms across her chest and looking pointedly away from him. But she doesn’t boo anymore, and she doesn’t join in the “LEM! N! LIME!” chant that starts up.</p><p>*</p><p>Sam gives the audience the line about technical issues, but it doesn’t matter: they either can’t hear him over the booing and chanting or they don’t care. </p><p>The guy who pushed him back onstage is signaling for him to play something. He could go ahead and play his sex songs if he wanted, he realizes. They’re not explicit, and these kids are unlikely to get what they’re about anyway. And that’s <i>if</i> they’d even be listening, which is doubtful. But it seems like such an inauspicious way to debut his music that he just plays some more covers that pop into his head. Tom Petty after all. Bon Iver. Billy Joel.</p><p>More Bieber. </p><p>Finally, <i>finally</i> that guy is signaling that Sam can wrap it up. He cuts his reprise of “Baby” short and announces, “And now please welcome Lem’nLime!” before literally running off the stage. He has no idea if Lem’nLime is actually going to go on, but if they’re not, he’ll be damned if he’s going to be the one to break the news to this crowd.</p><p>He tries to slink away, but the guy grabs him. “Hey, man, any chance you know how to play drums?”</p><p>Sam does not like where this is going. “A little. But I don’t know any of these guys’ songs…”</p><p>“It doesn’t matter, all the music is pre-recorded. You just have to look like you’re playing.”</p><p>“Yeah. Uh, those kids already really don’t like me, so…”</p><p>“No one will notice. Pretty much all of them like Logan or Corey; no one stans Danny. We’ll just get you a change of clothes and light you super dim.”</p><p>“That…seems like a really bad idea.”</p><p>“Come on, man, we’re desperate. We’ll pay you triple…quadruple what you were already promised.” Sam doesn’t answer right away, and the guy goes on, “Plus we’ll book you for another gig in front of a more age-appropriate crowd. Just…please!”</p><p>*</p><p>Lem’nLime finally takes the stage in their signature chartreuse and yellow jumpsuits, and the crowd goes wild. First the keyboard player, Nick, waves and walks across the stage. Then a guitarist, Logan, the one Indigo liked most until just recently, apparently. She still cheers pretty loudly for him, as does a large segment of the crowd, as he stands and blows kisses. Then Corey, and Blaine has no idea how the rest of the crowd reacts to him because he can’t hear anything over Indigo screaming “I love you, Corey!!” Blaine thought the group had a drummer too, but he doesn’t walk out. He is there, though—when they start to play Blaine can see someone on the drums, which are set up way in the back, like even farther back than drums are usually set up. And he’s barely lit.</p><p>Something seems very odd to Blaine, but he’s not sure what, exactly.</p><p>Maybe it’s that all the music sounds exactly the same as on the recorded versions of the songs. The vocals are slightly different, but not the instruments. True, all their songs sound really similar to each other, but Blaine has heard them enough that he can actually distinguish one from another. He's heard all of them enough that he figures out pretty quickly that these guys can’t be playing their instruments live.</p><p>It doesn’t matter. If Indigo can tell, she doesn’t care. None of the kids in the crowd do, as far as Blaine can tell. </p><p>The band goes through their entire repertoire—barely more than an EP’s worth—minus “I Wish I Was Your Teddybear.” Logan thanks the crowd, Corey shouts, “We love you!” and they all leave the stage, except the drummer, who stays where he is when the curtain closes.</p><p>Indigo looks at Blaine like she’s going to cry. “Aren’t they gonna sing Teddybear?”</p><p>“They’re just saving it for an encore, honey,” Blaine assures her. </p><p>The audience starts to chant “Teddybear! Teddybear!” Wisely, the guys don’t wait too long to return to the stage for their triumphant encore. </p><p>They finish and walk off the stage again and the house lights go up. Indigo wants to wait in case there’s another encore, but Blaine convinces her that the lights wouldn’t go on if the band were coming back out. </p><p>Blaine makes his daughter put her hoodie on and guides her toward the exit, but it’s very slow going. While they're inching toward the doors, Indigo strikes up a conversation with one of the other fans who is also trying to leave. Blaine doesn’t really pay attention to what they’re talking about, so when finally get outside the theater and Indigo asks, “Did you hear that, Dad?” he has to admit that he didn’t.</p><p>“The reason it took so long for them to start is they were all really sick! Their manager told them they shouldn’t play but they didn’t want to let us all down! Dad, we have to find the stage door and see if Corey is all right!” And then she just takes off toward the back of the theater, leaving Blaine just standing there.</p><p>He finds her several minutes later by the stage door, milling around with a sizable group of other concerned fans. “Indigo!” He links his arm with hers and tells her, “Don’t run away from me like that, I almost lost you! Come on, we’re going—”</p><p>The door opens, and everyone in the crowd screams. Then the opening act walks out, and there’s a loud collective disappointed groan. The guy looks genuinely scared. Blaine rushes forward to rescue him. “Sam Evans? You were so great!” </p><p>“Oh. Thank you, it’s nice of you to say.”</p><p>Blaine ushers him several feet away from the door, dragging Indigo along too. “Yeah, we really enjoyed your set. Didn’t we, honey?”</p><p>“Mmm,” Indigo mutters. She’s straining to keep an eye on the stage door in case any Lem’nLime members come out.</p><p>“I mean. It was kind of a disaster. I wasn’t supposed to open, and then I got a call this afternoon and I just hopped on a bus and barely got here before I had to go on. No one told me the crowd would be so…young. I had to scrap most of the songs I had in mind, and I thought the Biebs might be appropriate, but…obviously that didn’t go over so well.”</p><p>Blaine is back to wanting to hug the guy. Not even just because he’s gorgeous, though he is. More because he just seems really sweet and overwhelmed. “The Biebs was totally appropriate,” he assures him. “I’m just not sure kids this age are really into him. Or...know who he is, even.”</p><p>“Really? He’s pretty famous.”</p><p>“Sure. But…Hey, Indigo? Do you know who Justin Bieber is?”</p><p>Indigo is not paying attention to Blaine at all, but after he repeats the question a couple times she replies, “Sure. Someone <i>you</i> like.”</p><p>“I do not like Justin Bieber!” Blaine protests. Then, immediately realizing he’s probably insulted Sam, he amends, “I mean, I don’t like Justin Bieber singing his own songs. I did enjoy you singing them.”</p><p>Sam smiles very cutely (flirtatiously? Blaine can’t tell) and says, “So you’re either lying so as not to offend me or you’re lying because you’re embarrassed to admit you’re a Belieber.”</p><p>“Okay, okay! I admit I may have listened to a song or two back in the day! But I wouldn’t call myself a Belieber by any stretch!”</p><p>“Uh huh.” Blaine is almost sure it’s a flirtatious <i>uh huh</i>.</p><p>“Hey, I’m not the one who happens to have Justin Bieber’s biggest hits memorized, including their arrangements for acoustic guitar!”</p><p>“Well.” Sam scratches the back of his neck. “Yeah.”</p><p>“And how <i>do</i> you happen to be so intimately acquainted with his oeuvre?”</p><p>“Okay. Well. This is embarrassing, so don’t laugh, okay?” He waits for Blaine to nod before he goes on. “When I was in high school I sort of…started a one-man tribute band because I thought it would impress this one girl.”</p><p>Indigo, who Blaine did not think was listening, pipes up with, “Hear that, Dad? You can stop flirting, he’s straight.”</p><p>“Indigo!” Blaine feels his cheeks heat up. “I wasn’t flirting!”</p><p>“No?” Sam asks. “That’s too bad, I kinda hoped you were. And I’m not actually straight.”</p><p>“Oh?”</p><p>“So you’re bi then?” Indigo asks. “Or just in the closet in high school?”</p><p>“Indigo!”</p><p>“Well, I—”</p><p>“Never mind. Sorry. When is Corey coming outside? Is he okay?”</p><p>“Corey…Oh, from the band? He’s not the drummer, right?”</p><p>“Corey is most certainly <i>not</i> the drummer! The drummer isn’t even good-looking.”</p><p>“Wow. I see how it is. But yeah, Corey is fine. I don’t think any of them are coming out any time soon though.”</p><p>Indigo gasps. “You mean they’re all gay too?”</p><p>“No! I mean, actually I have no idea. I don’t actually know them. I just meant I heard they’re not leaving the theater any time soon.”</p><p>“But you met them, right? Are they as super cute up close? Except for the drummer?”</p><p>“Well, I didn’t meet the drummer at all, though I heard he’s a nice guy. Some people even think he’s cute, not that I would know. And I only saw the other guys’ backs. Sorry.”</p><p>“Aargh!”</p><p>“Okay, honey. I guess I need to get you home or your dad…your dad and Prentiss, I mean…her other dad and I are divorced,” Blaine blurts out to Sam. “I’m single. Not that it…not that you…” He takes a deep breath. He probably should have stopped trying to flirt, he’s terrible at it. “Anyway, I have to get this one home to her other dad before he kills me.”</p><p>“But, Dad! Corey…”</p><p>“We’re not going to see Corey, honey. Right?”</p><p>“Yeah, your dad’s right, I’m afraid. And I should get out of here too before anyone notices the untalented and uncute singer who was too dorky to know that Justin Bieber is totally out. It was nice to meet you…”</p><p>“Blaine!” Blaine reaches out for Sam’s outstretched hand and shakes it. “Blaine Anderson! It was so nice to meet you too. I hope I can hear you play again some time.” </p><p>“Well, Blaine Anderson. You know, I could give you my phone number. If you want.”</p><p>“Yes! That would be…yes, thank you!” Blaine passes Sam his phone.</p><p>Sam adds himself as a contact, then passes it back. “It was nice to meet you too, Indigo. If I do ever meet Corey I’ll tell him I met his number one fan.”</p><p>“But don’t make me sound deranged or anything!”</p><p>“No, of course not.” Sam smiles and waves, then starts to walk away.</p><p>Blaine looks at the contact in his phone. Sam added himself as <i>Sam Evans (also single </i>😉<i>)</i>. “Sam, wait!”</p><p>Sam turns. “Yeah?”</p><p>“Did you say that you took the bus here?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“Well at least let us give you a ride home. Or, I mean, I should actually drop Indigo off first, and then…”</p><p>“And then you’d maybe let me buy you a drink?”</p><p>“Oh my god, get a room, you two!”</p><p>“Indigo!”</p><p>“Thanks, yeah, I’d love a ride.” Blaine leads them to the car. When Indigo gets involved in something on her phone, Sam leans in and whispers, “Also, your daughter’s suggestion? Not terrible.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Candy is (was) a real band and they were the opening act for the first concert I ever went to. The lead singer got a reaction of crickets when he asked us, the very young audience, the question I had Sam ask here when introducing "The First Time."</p></blockquote></div></div>
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